SHELTER AND COMFORT FOR FEEDING CATTLE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1665, 27 January 1904, Page 67

SHELTER AND COMFORT FOR FEEDING CATTLE

In his paper on the “Winter Fattening of Cattle’ in the Journal of the Department of Agriculture ami Technical Instruction for Ireland Air James W ilson, M.A., B.Sc.-. remarks that in stockkeeping the vitally important quest on is the comfort of the animals. They may be the best stock in the country; they may be fed with the very best and most wisely selected foods; they may bo ’the best milkers or the best ratteners: but unless they be thoroughly comfort'ablle their owners will stand a much higher chance of boasting about how little beef and milk they can produce than about how much. Discomfort is the great- producer of lean cattle and poor milkers. Presuming that ’che animals get plenty of good food, the great factors in successful stock-keeping are shelter, dry beds and clean bodies, and regular feeding. A very large portion of an animal's food goes, to maintain the heat of tlie body. In summer the animail maintains its body heat easily and with something to spare ; in cold'weather there is nothing to spare. Indeed,, in cold weather, the animal is unable, frc-m the food it can. consume, to supply the body • with sufficient heat, and the fat stored up in warmer weather has to be used up for the purpose; consequently the animal becomes Jean. What lias been gained in yammer is lost- during winter. A wet filthy place to stand or lie in has precisely the same effect as cold and! wet overhead. We, ourselves, know that with feet and clothing wet we feel cold, and that, if this condition be long enough continued,, deterioration and disease may follow. Every hour an animal spends on wet and filthy ground! or in a wet and filthy stall, or stable is at least so much fat lost toi its body. When cattle are out in the open they can keep their skins clean for themselves ; when they are in the house they cannot: and, if they are to be kept in comfort this must be done for them. • They should be strongly groomed) with comb and brush, especially along the back and neck three or lour times a week. It would be difficult to insist, too strongly upon regular feeding. It is of no great importance whether animaiSs be fed three times or six times a clay; it is of importance that they be always 'fed at the same time, and that feeding and cleaning out the stable be done so as to give as little disturbance as possible. Cattle get into the habit of feeding at certain times and of ruminating between the times. On no account should they be disturbed excepting at the lusuail feeding tomes. The byres should ho cleaned out and a clean bed! prepared abojut feeding time, so that feeding and cleaning may be one dise turbance instead of two. Combing and brushing may he performed during rumination,' because it is no disturbance but rather a pleasure to the animals, a It is sometimes urged that housing or makes animals delicate, while wintering out makes them stronger. This is very doubtful. Undoubtedly shelter is of greater service to- the weak than it is to the strong, but it makes neither any weaker. Undoubtedly also the strong are best able to bear the outsider; but wintering outside can scaroefly make either the strong or the weak any stronger. One thing, however, it can do. It can'show which are the weak and which are the strong, to the advantage of the man who knows to buy the strong for summer grazing, but not to the advantage of the man who owned both weak and strong during the winter. It would bo possible, by observing which stand the winter best and bv breeding from these for a long series •of yeans, to produce a race of very hardy cattle. But is it so very necessary? Thd Shetland pony has been produced through its native climate eliminating the weak ones; similarly

also the- hardy- ponies of the West o': Ireland. Bu bis it necessary to ha.v e- cattle like them? Our cattle are wanted to xu’oduce beef and milk, not for a military campaign.